back to article Everything Everywhere swept away by its own 4G hype tsunami

Everything Everywhere is no more: long live EE and 4G. The mobile operator now gets to watch its children, Orange and T-Mobile, starve to death as they're denied access to the 4G feast. London's Science Museum played host this morning to the launch of "EE", which has a new logo, a UK exclusive on 4G and will be selling …

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  1. Stuart Ball
    FAIL

    Didn't they check the .com was available first???

    http://www.ee.com/

    1. bdam
      Holmes

      Quick! Second choice seems for sale: http://eebygum.com

  2. Ol'Peculier
    Stop

    Fibre

    Why bother with fibre if 4G delivers the speeds it is promising?

    ()and who came up with that logo? the people that did the Lisa Simpson blowjob one?!)

    1. Test Man
      Stop

      Re: Fibre

      Because unlike fibre, speeds will be determined by where you are, which building you may be in and how many people are overloading the mast at any one time.

      Basically with any wireless standard, there are far more variables that could affect reception, Fibre broadband doesn't suffer from a lot of this because it goes down a cable that is unaffected by buildings, etc.

  3. Robert E A Harvey

    Yawn.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/9535265/Revealed-The-16-cities-that-will-get-4G-connectivity-by-the-end-of-2012.html

    "EE says its 4G mobile broadband network will reach 98 per cent of the

    UK population by the end of 2014. Here are the cities that will be

    covered by the network by the end of 2012. "

    and it is the usual suspects all over again. Ho hum.

    Why not do something clever and bring connectivity to places that don't have it?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Yawn.

      Indeed!!! Like decent phone reception and 3G to start with!

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Yawn.

      Cos the groats you bumpkins use as currency isn't as strong as GBP.

      The trickier tech / spectrum to get faster speeds to greener parts is at the back end, cos you're worth less revenue.

      1. SkippyBing

        Re: Yawn.

        Are you sure? The groat has showed remarkable strength not being based on a corrupt banking system for it's revenue, unlike certain currencies I could mention...

    3. John H Woods Silver badge

      Re: Yawn.

      98% of the population. FFS it is MOBILE TECHNOLOGY. They should be forced to say what % of geographical area it covers, or what % of the road network. The number of people who can use it whilst in their house or their office is surely completely irrelevant.

  4. Robert Grant

    "the assembled press were told, inferring that we should rejoice"

    inferring != implying. Seriously need a journalist and an editor to get involved at El Reg!

    P.s. I can proofread your stuff for money, guys. Seriously - consider it :)

    1. diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

      Re: "the assembled press were told, inferring that we should rejoice"

      I am sorry that we can't catch every error while under pressure, but we do try. You are quite right, and the article has been tweaked. Thanks.

      C.

  5. mittfh
    Stop

    4G?

    IIRC, what's being rolled out is LTE, which could be considered first release 4G, or even 3.9G, since while the LTE spec allows peak download rates up to 299.6 Mbit/s and upload rates up to 75.4 Mbit/s depending on the user equipment category, the full 4G spec actually requires 100 Mb/s from high mobility communication (e.g. trains and cars) and 1 Gb/s from low mobility communications (e.g. pedestrians and stationary).

    However, before going overboard with 4G, let's not forget that many areas of the UK struggle to get any 3G reception, EDGE (2.75G) is still patchy, and some areas struggle to get basic GPRS (2.5G).

    For those that do get the super-duper connection speeds, will the operators increase the usage cap or will they keep it restricted to current rates? Even if they increase the usage cap, will they allow full speed access or will they implement a whole range of bandwidth throttling and prioritisation so they can get away with a reduced bandwidth backbone between cells.?

    1. Velv
      Flame

      Re: 4G?

      Further we need to STOP the media and marketing bods from using the term 4G.

      4G is a loose set of capabilities, it is NOT A STANDARD. As was demonstrated in Australia with the iPhad 3, the claims of 4G were proven to be irrelevant as there was no compatible network with the technology standard to which the iPhad complied.

      EE is rolling out LTE, it should be clearly stated it is LTE and not 4G.

      The ITU has a lot of problems to fix!!!!

      1. Test Man
        WTF?

        Re: 4G?

        Did you not read the memo? Yes, LTE is technically speaking a 3G standard, BUT the ITU have already said they're fine with it being called a 4G technology.

        So get used to it.

      2. AndrueC Silver badge
        Headmaster

        Re: 4G?

        We failed to stop them using 'Fibre broadband' and 'Next Generation' didn't get much clarification either.

  6. the-it-slayer
    Facepalm

    Hold on?

    Give me two seconds here before I go mad...

    - One minute EE were just going to act as an umbrella for both Orange & T-Mob (no new child companies)

    - Next minute EE revealed a possible new network was going to start up to cater business customers

    - Now we have EE as the total brand for the whole network and Orange & T-Mob going down the plug hole very slowly

    In all of that, there were rumours of a split up and EE departing it's joint venture of the two companies. Is this all a joke or just a huge PR messup in the last 6 months on purpose trying to keep us on our toes? I really don't see the benefit of starting up a new company name and push all that money into it when you have two brands that could be directed as T-Mob (personal) and Orange (business). Maybe damage has been done in their opinion and that a new company would cover up all of the major issues for the short-term.

    @Robert E A Harvey (11:17) - Do the maths. People in the wide vast countryside will always lose out because there isn't the income available to justify the extra infrastructure needed in comparison to cities. I know that isn't fair and they'd be a good opportunity to fill the missing fibre in small towns across rural Britain by supplying fast 4G access. It's not right, but it's okay in the eyes of the corporate world. Money over customer satisfaction.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Hold on?

      "Now we have EE as the total brand for the whole network and Orange & T-Mob going down the plug hole very slowly"

      Well, offering the Lumia as an exclusive makes a fabbo combination for taunting your previous customers: Nokia have p***ed off their past customers by dropping Symbian, MS have p***ed off their past customers by terminating a couple of WP versions and a variety of vaguely related products like Zune, and now EE decide to p*** off those happily subscribing to Torange (more than they may have been cheesed off with the painfully slow ICS updates).

      A meage a trois made in heaven.

      1. Test Man
        WTF?

        Re: Hold on?

        Don't see what the problem is.

        If you're signed up to T-Mobile or Orange, you're in exactly the same position as O2, Vodafone and other customers - you'll have to wait till your contract runs out before moving. So saying T-Mobile and Orange customers are pissed off is as silly as saying O2 customers are pissed off.

        1. chr0m4t1c

          Re: Hold on?

          Well, not unreasonably I think, following EE's crowing in the press prior to this announcement, I had assumed that I could have considered purchasing a "4G" handset in order to make use of this swanky new technology pretty much immediately, despite being in contract.

          OK, I probably wouldn't, because I expect that the pricing will be silly money, but this feels very much like a change in tack from T'Orangeverything.

          I must admit to being slightly bemused, this largely negates their competitive advantage of being able to sell this to people still in contract to them (like me) as well as those out of contract. That must have been a weird sales meeting - "Shall we sell this expensive new service to all of our existing customers as well as new ones?", "Nah, let's leave our current customers to our competitors over the next few years".

          I am, however, definitely looking forwards to seeing how Three are going to market their 4G.

          1. Test Man
            Stop

            Re: Hold on?

            Well, they did say something about people on Orange or T-Mobile probably being able to move "easily" to EE. Dunno what that entails though.

            At the end of the day though, Orange, T-Mobile and EE are separate companies whose parent company is Everything Everywhere, in much the same manner BT Retail, BT Openworld and BT Wholesale are all separate companies owned by BT Group, or Dixons Tax Free, Currys, Currys.Digital and PC World are all separate companies owned by Dixons Retail. All of these companies are competitors to each other.

            So you really have to ignore the whole "one company" thing.

            1. chr0m4t1c

              Re: Hold on?

              Having just read the announcement (which the writer of the article appears to have avoided doing), it seems that the following will be happening:

              1) All customers of the current network will see their network ID change to "EE" by the end of the year

              2) You will still be able to continue with your current contract

              3) They will continue to offer T-Mobile and Orange contracts and services for 2G/3G for new an existing customers

              4) New customers can go onto new EE 4G contracts.

              5) This is the important omission from the article - existing customers can switch to new EE 4G contracts

              6) All stores will be re-branded as EE stores, selling contracts and services for all three "networks", but all customers will be on the EE network.

              The only thing that isn't clear right now is how things will work when an existing customer wants to switch to EE. I suspect they'll effectively be released from their current contract by having to start a new one with at least the same monthly payment for the same length of time, or they will be allowed to switch the existing contract, but not get a new handset.

              Overall, not as weird a situation as the article implies. Mind you, we have yet to see any pricing, so there's still lots of scope to mess things up.

              If they have any brains at all, they'll make sure the first contracts are available in time for the launch of the new iPhone as that will sell in bucket loads (irrespective of how crap/evil/whatever Reg commentards think it is) because if it works on their network they could pick up an awful lot of business. (Big IF, I know.)

    2. GitMeMyShootinIrons

      @the-it-slayer

      "It's not right, but it's okay in the eyes of the corporate world. Money over customer satisfaction."

      You have to have customers in order to provide satisfaction, let alone earn money. Not much point sticking a mast on an island with a population of two (and one of those is a seal) - Where's the revenue to run the mast, the engineers to fix it, the support line and a measure of profit to make the business venture worthwhile?

      A sad truth is that it's basic supply and demand. Not pleasent, but important nonetheless.

  7. Silverburn
    Facepalm

    Looks like another marketing department has disappeared up its own arse again.

    Real world:

    - 50% of actual coverage delivered, and really patchy

    - actual bandwidth is nearer 20% of quoted figures

    - It's flaky as fuck for the first 3 months

    - costs are higher than expected = higher monthly contracts

    1. Piro Silver badge

      Bravo

      50% sounds a bit optimistic, 3 months is a bit generous, but apart from that, spot on. Exactly how it'll be.

  8. Kristian Walsh Silver badge

    3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine

    The so-hot-right-now one-man media agency chilingly realises that the EverythingEverywhere job has to be in by close-of-business, and having rather foolishly spent the last week clubbing and hanging out with the Shoreditch set, he hasn't done a single stroke on it.

    Never fear: the answer is at hand. Deep in the almost-inaccessible corner of the pocket of those ever-so-skinny jeans... a pair of forgotten disco biscuits.

    Result.

  9. Fihart

    from t' mobile to ee by gum...

    Having admitted that Everything Everywhere was a terrible brand name, they've swapped it for one that calls to mind the EEC, to which many Brits have a kneejerk hostile reaction. And the logo, obviously the MD's 5 year-old kid drew that up.

    As for letting the existing T-Mob and Orange brands die, this is as dumb as the name changes at AT&T (Lucent) and Rockwell (Conexant) or Royal Mail (Nondeliver, or some such).

    Still it may please Yorkshiremen -- they can switch from t' mobile to ee, by gum.

    1. Test Man
      Stop

      Re: from t' mobile to ee by gum...

      Pfffff I disagree. Personally I thought T-Mobile was a rubbish name and much preferred the previous one - one2one.

      And anything that stops those ridiculous Orange cinema ads is a good thing :)

  10. Stuart Ball

    Maybe thats why Asus have dropped the Eee branding from Transformers etc....

    http://www.reghardware.com/2012/09/03/asus_ceo_sounds_netbook_death_knell/

    1. Test Man
      Stop

      No. Asus have dropped netbooks completely, like several other manufacturers. If they dropped the branding, the netbooks would be called something else.

      So it's a complete coincidence.

  11. vmistery
    Stop

    Rural not such a bad option

    For those saying that it wouldn't be worth putting out in the Countryside I disagree. If you put this out in the Countryside and market it as a fixed line replacement (offering Virtual local numbers perhaps) product then you could potentially extract £30 / month or more out of each customer plus their Mobile contract. Sounds pretty sweet to me, especially if you are the only Operator doing it. At the end of the day me on my FTTC line in a well connected Town is unlikely to move my fixed line. I also will probably not bother with 4G until the cost comes down as we have many wireless hotspots and good wifi at home. EE if your reading by the way I am available to discuss :-D

    1. Richard 81

      Re: Rural not such a bad option

      My thoughts exactly. Urban areas are more or less saturated with fixed line networks, many of which have a wireless hub on the end. Why pay more for a mobile contract for each device? Also, those cities are the ones where HSPA+ signal is excellent. You're not going to be downloading full length movies, but HD clips from YouTube are a breeze.

      Whereas, there's a sound business case for reliable 4G signal in rural areas and a line of 4G-WiFi routers*.

      *No doubt they'd rather you got a contract for every PC connected to the internet, but it's not going to happen.

      1. Test Man
        Stop

        Re: Rural not such a bad option

        No, not really a sound business case. Urban areas have far far far more people, which equates to making more money. For some companies, it doesn't make good business sense to invest millions in rural areas for little gain. It sucks, yes, but there you go - a business is there to make money.

        What we need is people in rural areas making more of a fuss, instead of just taking it lying down.

        1. vmistery

          Re: Rural not such a bad option

          Thats why I am suggesting they are a bit more innovative. If you can make £15 / month and have to supply a phone to people in a city (lower margin) or £30 / month for a landline replacement and have to supply nothing but a cheap router with a 3g card in to someone in the country the margin per sale is vastly higher and the numbers start to look better.

          Also as EE wont have ANY competition for at least 18 months and they would have a potential speed advantage over BT the uptake % should be higher in the Villages if they did their marketing right. I am not suggesting they put them up for places that only have a few houses but larger Villages absolutely. If you could grab 25% of 300 homes (using my parents village here) thats 75 households. Per month thats £2250 or £27000 a year. Now assuming that you then offer people in that village mobiles that are going to have great signal and great speed you also make that money too.

  12. mittfh
    Joke

    "ee by gum"?

    How about just calling it "eek!" ? :)

    1. John G Imrie
      Happy

      Re: "ee by gum"?

      Doesn't Terry Pratchett have a copy right on Eek!

  13. Kubla Cant

    My experience as an Orange/EE user/victim is that their data network isn't generally fast enough for 3G, never mind 4G. Much of the time it isn't even fast enough for GPRS. So what's the point?

    @the-it-slayer

    The argument about the higher cost of providing communication services in rural areas isn't a new one. In the past it's been resolved by insisting that suppliers have to take their fair share of the rural lemons, rather than just picking the urban cherries. That's why you can post a letter to any address in the country at the same cost. The alternative viewpoint is the one adopted by Dr Beeching, the man who carved out our magnificent rail network.

  14. Joe Schmo
    FAIL

    4G likely to be throttled

    Was with o2 for their coverage, but switched from o2 for the first time because my wife was on it. That was 18 months ago. Here is my experience.

    Crap customer service, throttled speed to 0.30 Mbps on H/edge, constantly switching to 3g reducing my battery. not too bothered as I do not use a lot of web data but do pay £40+ a month. But was annoyed to find out that all new customer and existing customers where their contract term expires will be throttled regardless of package, ie unlimited data! Soon as my wifes contract came up for renewal, and without renewing her speed dropped from 7Mbps to 1Mbps. Tested over a three month period. Yes i am that anal specially when our household pays over £100 to T-mobile a month v VirginTV who get £40 and provide a more services that we actually use, including 50meg broadband and TIVO.

    Post merger my phone was constantly switching between t-mobile and Orange. When on Orange no calls got through, text service was shite, texts were duplicated etc. On Orange I could only use 3g, no HSDPA - most sites and checking emails would result in a time-out/ retry. As soon as things were finalised between T&O I have been stuck on 3g and rarely have full bar. My guess is 4G is just a headline grabber. T-mobile has never been interested in data customers and likes to appeal to texters and facebookers. More than likely on 4G your max speed with unlimited internet packages will be 1Mbps as they will never fully invest in the infrastructure.

    Plan on buying out the remainder of my contract this month as my wifes is renewing on the 19th. Probably moving back to o2 or Three. Been impressed with Three's website, customer service and more importantly their speeds on my mobile broadband for my laptop and tablet.

  15. slingo
    Happy

    by 'eck

    I find it most disappointing they didn't choose somewhere in Yorkshire to launch the new brand tha knows... that would be too funny http://www.theregister.co.uk/Design/graphics/icons/comment/happy_32.png

  16. Crisp
    FAIL

    I'd be happy and grateful if I could at least get a 3G connection

    I really don't see the point in upgrading to 4G if I'm going to be stuck using the crappy EDGE network.

  17. Alan Brown Silver badge
    Coat

    Will the theme song be....

    "EE be good"

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Meh

    Unlimited monthly data limit exhausted in 30 secs as opposed to 30 mins.

  19. Harvey Trowell
    Pint

    Is it just me...

    Or does anyone else feel like a Tooheys or two?

  20. Simon Blair

    How about

    4GEE ?

  21. Mnot Paranoid
    Happy

    Every cloud...

    Hopefully all the current hardcore mobile data rapists will migrate and get locked into a nice "Early adopter (mug)" two year contract with EE.

    Should give a bit of space to those of us who are happy to stay on 3G until an operator with a clue gets into the LTE / 4G market.

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Dongle

    Instead of having to splash out on a 4G handset, cant we just a cheappo DOngles ($G) doing the same job, so that those speeds can be used for laptops and PCs??

    Surley the chinese ought to come out with these AND Cheaply, without the ripoff prices just because its 4G.

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